I'm in! May use the next LIS chapter, or the next AToTC chapter, or my "racy" story of a certain pair of mutants. It's adult-themed and slash-y, so I'm not sure on that one. Thoughts? (Feral, you might have some ideas here, given some of your recent works!)

"Well, this is another fine myth you've gotten us into..."
-from "Myth Directions"

I'll toss my bonnet into the ring tentatively. I'm right in the middle of one of those racy works Duckie was talking about, so if I get this novel done in time I'll crank out another issue of Metal.

I personally loved the story that you are talking about Ducks, but you may need to tone it down for this competition. Perhaps use fade to black for the more intimate scenes? Just my two cents which won't get you a cup of coffee nowadays. =)

Um, I'm not sure it's the same story you're thinking of, Feral. This is one I've barely started, much less had posted. I'll be blunt here, it actually involves a pair of brothers in a situation that could be viewed as slash/yaoi. It's not outright T-cest, but implied as such, and I'm not sure how that sort of thing would be received here. (Though I'm trying to expand out of my comfort zone with it, so there's that.)

"Well, this is another fine myth you've gotten us into..."
-from "Myth Directions"

MsMarvelDuckie @ Sep 4 2015, 07:03 PM wrote: Um, I'm not sure it's the same story you're thinking of, Feral. This is one I've barely started, much less had posted. I'll be blunt here, it actually involves a pair of brothers in a situation that could be viewed as slash/yaoi. It's not outright T-cest, but implied as such, and I'm not sure how that sort of thing would be received here. (Though I'm trying to expand out of my comfort zone with it, so there's that.)

Ahhh, okay Ducks I understand now. I thought it was a different story of yours.

Slash might be a tough cookie for some here to swallow but then again as authors we do need to help expand the minds of our readers. You could always put up a warning at the beginning of the chapter/issue so that readers who are sensitive to such things would know.

The call is ultimately yours. I'm behind you no matter what as I would be behind any author. Goodness knows I pen things that a large majority of the population would find distasteful but that does not stop me from putting my work proudly out there.

Thanks guys! I guess it's settled, then. If nothing else, it will be a good chance for me to debut some brand-new material, and even if no one votes for it, I'll have gone boldly where few have gone before!!

"Well, this is another fine myth you've gotten us into..."
-from "Myth Directions"

Eadir hadn&#8217;t visited this area for a long time and now he found it difficult to recognize: the savanna he remembered with scarce trees but green and life-giving to small animals turned into a desert and was a dried out landscape now with rarely scattered bunches of grass here and there on the stony hills, the ground looked like skin of an old woman, wrinkled and grey-colored from the hot drying winds which howled in-between a few ruins of once beautiful southern mansions. Dust was raising with each movement and was clinging to Eadir&#8217;s nose and ears, and there was a sour taste in his mouth, of which Eadir was sure that it wasn&#8217;t healthy. His eyes were itching painfully too. In short words: everywhere one could sense this annoying smell of death. Eadir wasn&#8217;t afraid of dying, he was a wizard, one of the five. And now he was looking for the one, with whom he went off to search out the ancient and long forgotten, even by Elves, Cuivienen &#8211; Eadir travelled then far to the south while his twin brother had chosen the far east.

Being unsuccessful after one week of his searching Eadir decided to continue it over the next one, and then further weeks followed which brought no changes. Eadir however was not about to give up, so he decided to begin his work again and first then in the place where they agreed on and held their hundred-years meetings in last two thousands he noticed an arc that had been carved out over a stony cavern, and above it a stony ledge in whose corner there was a stony statue of a rotten leafless tree. Eadir with much effort climbed up the arc and sat down tired and out of breath reaching for his goatskin water bag. Water unfortunately took in the sour-vapid taste typical for this abandoned area, so Eadir allowed himself only a small sip of it.

- Good, that you&#8217;re still carrying your big hat, Eadir &#8211; he heard someone whispering, the voice was coming from the corner, where the tree statue was standing &#8211; You&#8217;ll go rotten more slowly -

Eadir turned his head towards the tree &#8211; Hiromir! &#8211; he exclaimed still having difficulty in believing what was in front of him &#8211; My old friend born from the same breath &#8211; he addressed the fellow-wizard stuttering, as the sight of an actually living skeleton with thin grey-brown skin was really painful for him &#8211; Why have you agreed to be tortured such a cruel way? &#8211; he asked realizing that Hiromir must have been sitting here for at least a half century.

- Take me by my hand, I was waiting for you, for your help &#8211; Hiromir whispered weakly &#8211; Without us they will die out for ever -

- Who&#8217;s they, Hiromir? Here is no one to be seen, underground either, I feel it &#8211; Eadir opposed being still surprised.

- Take my hand, the one that has got some fingers, with both of yours &#8211; Hiromir urged him &#8211; My chakra will show them to you -

Eadir hesitated, but finally he did it &#8211; in the meantime he checked Hiromir very carefully &#8211; it was him for sure, his twin-brother. And immediately he was drowned by a huge wave of water: and he wasn&#8217;t alone there, he noticed some dolphins playing happily in the water, colorful fish, crabs and snails, which made him hungrier than he already was. But then he saw Elves swimming among the dolphins. And he almost took water into his lungs from excitement: these Elves had fish-tails!

- He had bound them with his curse, that couldn&#8217;t be broken by any of us, brother, as this had been born from the thoughts of Melkor the Hideous. You see, how beautiful they are. Such joy I experienced only once, watching for the first time our Great Music develop into a form&#8230; - Hiromir was whispering with great effort - &#8230; I concealed them inside me, within my identity, but I had too little energy to transfer them neither in space nor in time. This is why I&#8217;ve been waiting for you -

- What are you going to do? &#8211; Eadir asked still surprised, not knowing what his brother was referring to &#8211; We weren&#8217;t given such power -

- No, we weren&#8217;t &#8211; Hiromir confirmed &#8211; But together we can return to Eru and lay them in front of His throne. Maybe this way they will avoid the tortures that were laid on them for refusing to pay homage to Sauron. Maybe Eru in His mercy will show them a new home, were they could develop freely -

-----

Sixty years later the Easterling armies coming across the desert could see a dry tree in the middle of a stony arc reaching with its branches towards a shadowed corner. The warriors, who on their captain&#8217;s order, had to check to see, if there was something hidden in this corner, confirmed, that they found nothing in a pile of dust, which the dry wind took with it into the air leaving in their mouths a sour taste only.

-----

- Hey! Be careful! &#8211; Pete shot out of the water catching the panicking girl, whom he hurriedly tried to rescue from drowning this way. Most probably she had gotten cramp &#8211; Ouch! &#8211; he shouted, as she kicked him in his tibia. They dived rapidly underwater and Pete forced her upwards, so that she wouldn&#8217;t inhale water into her lungs. As for himself he hadn&#8217;t such worries: underwater his skin automatically was opening filtering out the oxygen necessary for his body&#8217;s functions. Only the first breath of air was then a little bit painful due to his nose flooding with water&#8230; The girl kept struggling against the water, so he reached hurriedly to the surface, caught her by her arms from behind swimming with her then towards the visible stony lake-shore.

She burst into tears immediately. Pete wanted to cuddle her, to calm her this way, but she pushed him away screaming: - Leave me alone! I don&#8217;t need you! &#8211; so he just sat down not so far away from her and waited for the girl to gather together her thoughts. To other amateurs swimming in a wild and unsecured lake he nodded convincing them, that there was no harm done to her.

- What&#8217;s your name? &#8211; he risked a question a while later, when she had stopped breathing noisily the hot air.

She didn&#8217;t answer straight away, only glanced at him disturbed, then looked down to her feet.

- Hey, you don&#8217;t have to be ashamed, everyone can get his muscles blocked in cold water on
such a day. It happens to&#8230; -

- What happens?! &#8211; she barked loudly &#8211; To me it happens all the time, and all the time I have to make excuses that again something went wrong for me! &#8211; and she covered her face with both her hands &#8211; Enough&#8230; I really can&#8217;t live this way any longer &#8211; she added more calmly after further few breaths.

- Oh, it was the same with me &#8211; he said &#8211; I also had to explain all the time in the school, that my dreadlocks, although short, are impossible to keep them tidy, I was born with them -

His remark made her curious, she looked at his hair &#8211; They&#8217;re cute, the dreadlocks &#8211; she commented &#8211; But it is not the same with me &#8211; she finished with a clear resignation in her voice &#8211; Bad luck isn&#8217;t following you wherever you go, while I&#8217;m not allowed even to swim peacefully -

- In an unsecured, wild lake it isn&#8217;t allowed to swim at all. So &#8220;peacefully&#8221; wouldn&#8217;t be the right word for that. Why are you alone here? &#8211; he looked at her expressively with his big brown eyes.

His constant glancing at her so&#8230; well&#8230; she thought &#8211; aggressively &#8211; scared her, so she got immediately up &#8211; I should go back now. I&#8217;ll change my clothes first &#8211; she finished hurriedly.

- Would you tell me at least what your name is? &#8211; he called after her.

- Milena! &#8211; she threw her name not even turning towards him &#8211; And thanks for your help.

- And mine is Pete &#8211; he murmured being sure, that she wouldn&#8217;t hear that. He immediately felt miserable and rejected, as if the bad luck had stuck to him this time - Argh&#8230; - he shuddered &#8211; The evil attracts the same kind, one should stay good natured just for protection -

-----

He shuddered again a year later when he saw her on the beach in Portugal. She was sitting with some colleagues and they all were merrily playing cards together. And they had the same red-white and blue towels, so he assumed, that they were on some holidays as a college group. Pete at that time was making further rounds across the seas checking Europe&#8217;s coasts &#8211; he already knew all the European lakes throughout, even to the smallest grain of sand. He has always enjoyed swimming, for as long as he could remember: water was for him the only durable element, durable in this aspect, that being under process of constant circulation, evaporating and condensing in turns it was available everywhere as a lake or something like that. This was also why he avoided deserts. A desert equals death, it is the end to everything that is alive. The same metal, which Peter associated with the wars he had witnessed in his long life. Yees&#8230; deserts and metal have a lot in common and life is their enemy. Life is stronger however and it is restlessly trying to bite into deserts and into metal, but it has to concentrate all its powers and only a unified action of many, many beings brings visible effects.

Pete had it very pleasant in Portugal: during the usual siesta no one was disturbing his swimming and diving, to that the sea-salt after many hours underwater was sticking to his skin creating white irregular motives, a little bit similar to scales, so it was enough, that meeting sometimes numerous groups of divers he had just to crouch and freeze melting himself this way into the sea bottom. The divers passed then by him hunting for colorful fish totally unaware of his presence there.

But once he saw Milena under the water, well actually it was her fluorescent swimming suit, that from underneath looked like a green-blue light spot. Pete followed her not knowing why he was doing it &#8211; he couldn&#8217;t show himself due to his salty skin. The girl was diving &#8211; Again alone! &#8211; Pete thought sarcastically, but she was quite good at that, well it was clear to Pete that she had done it many times before. Pete lustfully watched her moves, he had liked her from the very beginning, when she had that accident in a wild lake last summer. Suddenly Pete noticed a flash, as if someone, probably a diver was hiding in an underwater cave and taking pictures &#8211; He&#8217;s filming me &#8211; with that thought Pete rushed angrily in the diver&#8217;s direction; he had to destroy that camera and then immediately leave this coast. What a pity! For Pete this beach and its waters were excellent.

The light disappeared suddenly; Pete carefully entered the cave and first at that moment a thought came to him, that maybe it was not a diver hiding in there, but a kind of a beast hunting this way for its prey. Or someone attracting him on purpose into that cave. To catch him. But it was too late already, because something rushed to attack him from behind and immediately started to strangle him. The beast was fast and strong, nevertheless Pete didn&#8217;t give up, so they fought each other bumping against the cave&#8217;s walls with all their strength. Moving under the water is not the same as on the ground, you have to be really strong there to perform like this and even catching the beast, that all the time is sliding off of your hands, is not that easy. But suddenly Pete was hit by a fountain of air-bubbles coming out from his enemy and the fighting stopped. Pete still surprised, with trembling hands started to investigate the body, he wanted to identify who or what it was. Nooo&#8230; he didn&#8217;t want to know the truth, it was too terrifying. All his life he had avoided wars, he was hiding in lakes, in seas; he didn&#8217;t want to kill, he didn&#8217;t understand reasons for killing. And watching further generations passing away with tears, pain and despair on their lips he always kept the distance from the conflicts. But here, you see, he was forced for the first time to defend himself.

Pete pulled the dead body out of the cave, he intended to let it go to the surface; he assumed the man had a family, or someone, who was waiting for him up there&#8230; and who will suffer soon from such loss. It was the end, the real end of life; the sadness of this realization struck Pete&#8217;s heart even more than all the wars and deaths he had seen. And at that moment he noticed, that the man had a tail instead of legs. And that he wasn&#8217;t a man actually, but a girl. Pete immediately kept her down at the bottom. She was beautiful, with huge, maybe a little protruding eyes, with small breasts but wide shoulders and her&#8230; legs were really joined together almost for the whole of their length, and her feet looked like an extended, wide fin. Pete pulled her back to the cave, then not knowing what to do he just placed himself at the entrance. The wave of tears, that made him tremble with all his body was so intense, that he had to rush to the surface in order to avoid swallowing the water into his lungs. Up there he threw himself on the sand desperately not caring anymore if anyone notices him or not. He had lived for so many years with the thought that he was different, that he was a mutant; and not even once neither on the ground nor under the water had he come across any human abnormality which would be similar to his own, and all those, he was shown in the media proved to be false or untrue. So what now? What would he do now, when he not only felt to be alone but was also sure about it, and this time it was him who had made himself alone&#8230; He recalled her face. Even her green hair was the same, curled into dreadlocks like his own, only it had to be red, he supposed, as under the water the colors seem to be different due to lack of red&#8230;

When some time passed and Pete calmed down his heart and thoughts, he dived again to the sea-bottom, he sat then in the cave, close to the entrance watching the strange mermaid, he was not able to decide what to do next. Finally he took her necklace. The pearls were in fact beautiful, they were grey ones &#8211; for which people would surely pay a lot. But Pete was not about to sell them, he thought that maybe she wasn&#8217;t alone, as it would be real bad luck if in all the world they were the only two that were different &#8211; I don&#8217;t believe in bad luck &#8211; he thought bitterly as he realized he didn&#8217;t believe actually what he had just thought; and this made him recall Milena at once &#8211; No! &#8211; he decided shaking his head &#8211; I&#8217;ll find her mermaid-like family, they must be out there &#8211; and he blocked the entrance to the cave with what he could.

But he wasn&#8217;t given peace after he returned to the surface.

- Is it really you?! Unbelievable! &#8211; Milena exclaimed gulping loudly when she noticed him walking slowly and with evident difficulty along the passage. She was carrying ice-creams for her college-friends, she asked extra large portions for each of them, so she welcomed Pete with a mixture of a sheer triumph and surprise in her face.

Pete however for obvious reasons was not in a playful mood &#8211; Hi &#8211; he answered her barking shortly.

Milena looked at the ice-creams &#8211; Come on, join us, there will be a portion for you for sure, my dear rescuer -

But Pete burst out laughing madly &#8211; Tell me &#8211; he said ironically &#8211; Why when I wanted to talk to you, you ignored me so totally! And now, well, NO, thank you very much &#8211; he told her concentrating on controlling his trembling voice and body.

Milena immediately put away the ice-creams and quickly caught him by his arm.

He didn&#8217;t try to get rid of her grasp, only looked just away from her.

They were about the same height, so Milena intending to catch his eyes had finally to bend her knees, as he ended up looking down and closing his eyes constantly. She saw his eyes were watery so not knowing what to say she just kissed him gently, very gently. And she smiled after that &#8211; Thank you &#8211; she said &#8211; Thanks to you I believed that the bad luck can be averted, that our kind are stronger than any ill fate. For my grandma there was always something wrong, every day looked the same, difficult and sad. It all happened to her because&#8230; because she wanted the world to be&#8230; no, no, no, let me explain it to you&#8230; please &#8211; she said noticing that Pete was shaking his head rapidly &#8211; My grandma was very stubborn, so much that she was expecting the world to adjust to its picture she made up herself in her mind &#8211; Milena smiled gently touching Pete&#8217;s cheek and Pete felt her smile lighting up his squeezed thoughts &#8211; But it was totally wrong, because the world had never belonged only to her but to us all, it consist of the influences of each single soul living here. And we shouldn&#8217;t worry so much &#8211; she summarized looking directly into Pete&#8217;s eyes &#8211; But take an aim and act -

Pete heaved a sigh and then noticed ice-creams lying close to the edge of a big plant-pot with a small tree, he smiled shaking his head again &#8211; Yea &#8211; he said almost agreeably &#8211; However not everything ends up successful, like those ice-creams, which will be lost within seconds. I mean things have their own best time, if we miss it, it will be then too late to revert the time, Milena, there won&#8217;t be a second chance. Are you studying philosophy, or what? &#8211; he snorted wondering.

- If we really try, we miss only those things, which had to be missed and we lose the ones, which had to be lost &#8211; Milena riposted getting serious &#8211; And no, I don&#8217;t study philosophy, not yet. So how about you? Will you go with me for new ice-creams? -

He rejected, but he felt much better.

-----

And since that day he relentlessly searched through the seas, first of all where molluscs were to be found, the ones with the grey pearl inside.

-----

Disturbed water, brownie-grey from the bottom sediment. He can see only a little, but the panicking movements of many people become clear, although they are weaker and weaker in this cold water. Pete is sitting on the bottom of the river, from fear he&#8217;s got stomach cramps. From time to time one of the struggling people is pushed deeper under the water to make him drown. Pete notices a woman giving birth. Seconds later she stops moving, but her baby is swimming pretty lively in the water. Pete quickly approaches it and bites off the navel-cord. He looks up. He sees above a cover of numbly floating, already motionless bodies. They all are gazing down at him directly with their widely opened eyes. Terrified he wakes from this dream.

Yes, it&#8217;s true, he once saved a child this way. And gave it to a family in the nearest village. It was a horrible time. Pete doesn&#8217;t even know if the child survived, because later on whole villages started to die and burn, or burn and die.

But the dream remained. Dead people with opened and still scared eyes come to him in the dream before something important happens to him. They are a warning signal.

-----

Pete looked around carefully. The water was nicely warm, like usual in equatorial seas. And the dawn was rising up there. Pete blinked several times to wash away the salt, that was fastened to his eyelids while he was asleep. He was hungry. He used to eat water-animals on the surface, not under the water: fish he liked to have raw, but other ones he had to cook. So now he caught some sea plants on his way up, which he started to chew at once and then concentrated on the hunt. A while later he was sitting on a stony beach munching three rather small fish, one after another. He was disturbed, still angry about the recent dream as he didn&#8217;t want to solve any new problems. Yeep, he wasn&#8217;t curious about what happens today.

-----

They surprised him from behind. Probably he provoked them with the pearl-necklace he was wearing all the time. No, it wasn&#8217;t about the necklace, they wanted to lie him down, because they had already ignored a few opportunities to rip the pearls. But Pete knew what to do and seconds later he was in the water, and he was swimming as fast as only he could running this way from a motorboat. At the last moment he noticed he&#8217;s been led into a trap.

Well, don&#8217;t worry, he escaped them. Bad luck doesn&#8217;t always stick to us, does it? Pete however was really scared this time, so he stuck to the bottom looking around for a reef where he could hide himself. He was afraid of divers, the whole action looked well planned. The hunters were strong and skillfully communicated under the water. Someone on the ground, well maybe in the water too must have noticed him, and this someone had no good intentions&#8230; Pete decided to swim as far as he could, which meant deep into the sea; he understood that living up there wasn&#8217;t safe anymore.

-----

He wanted to befriend dolphins, but they were all running in panic from him. As if he were a shark, loving hunting dolphins especially. And this made him sure that out there in the waters lived someone else, who was misusing these usually friendly animals, or even eating them&#8230; Maybe someone like him? Or maybe it could be orcas or sharks in fact? &#8211; Neee&#8230; - he doubted his own ideas, he wasn&#8217;t like any of those types. Or maybe it were those mermaids, for example a mermaid&#8217; family: daddy, mummy, son and daughter? All with big sharp teeth to rip apart the dolphins; they should be similar to water-vampires, throwing themselves upon other animals and pumping out their blood&#8230; Pete snorted at that thought. No, the blood would attract real sharks. Anyway: pappi, mummy &#8211; it was a suggestion taken from TV-spots: too sweet and too naive to be real, and to that the past three years of extensive searching made him doubt the existence of other mermaids than the one he had killed, the only proof and hope that remained was the grey necklace&#8230;

-----

Again those dead faces staring at him. This time they were slightly different. All had small but thick lips and somewhat bigger eyes. Pete, immediately was reminded of the young mermaid and he awoke from the dream.

He knew at once he was surrounded. He couldn&#8217;t see anyone around in the water, but he felt they were there. And that &#8220;they&#8221; weren&#8217;t human. People would attack him while he was asleep. He shuddered from that nasty feeling of being put in danger. In the end he slowly got out of the small cave, where he slept, and opened his arms widely to show he had no ill intensions, but cursing himself in his mind for making that mistake of choosing a small cave for his home without a second emergency entrance, or escape way, just in case. And after a few seconds his hands were blocked behind and hooky sticks were tangled into his hair &#8211; even when he wasn&#8217;t moving he felt the pain of pulled hair strains, which disturbed his orientation in the waters.

They were leading him for a long time, from time to time, maybe every hour emerging to catch their breath. When the water started getting dark, Pete was thinking first of the sunset and immediately he felt hungry. But the mermen seemed not to need the food at all. There were four, all the time watching carefully around and making no noise. Pete wondered if they talk to each other mentally, but came to the conclusion, that their stony, concentrating faces proved actually the lack of communication. They were more like experienced hunters on a nasty hunt, or like soldiers in action: as silent as shadows trying to achieve their task &#8211; These waters have to be dangerous. Who do they fear so much? &#8211; he thought &#8211; There are no orcas here, they have been extinguished in the whole region &#8211; and for the first time he felt cold under water. That water was darkening too quickly for an evening, it seemed to swallow light, and to take more and more energy from the surface of his skin. He shuddered again. Thoughts appeared in his mind that maybe it wasn&#8217;t water at all but a kind of a water-like monster, a hungry one at that.

The mermen freed him as quickly as they had previously caught him, but they didn&#8217;t leave him alone, only keeping some distance they were swimming at all his sides. Pete finally stopped, he decided to approach one of them. But then a huge tentacle shot in his direction, and it wasn&#8217;t an octopus, but more like a huge water-plant with many, many stings on the tentacle. And more tentacles were reaching towards the hunters. One of the mermen didn&#8217;t manage to escape and after a while he was squeaking shrilly. For Pete this scream of pain was like that terrible cry of a puppy, whom he had once accidentally squeezed its forefoot. This was why Pete totally unawares reacted by throwing himself to help the suffering merman.

Pete and the suffering merman were tangling, well actually they were curling the tentacle, each one his own one, I mean, the one that attacked each of them. The tentacles were burning their skin mercilessly. When the other three mermen saw what Pete started, they decided to copy him. Pete saw hope in their faces and a childish joy in their eyes. Soon they could distinguish the beast: it was entirely black and had enormously huge teeth for the size of its body, but the five tentacles that were already tangled and held tightly from five sides effectively were blocking those teeth. Pete quickly took one of his Japanese knifes and pushed it deep into the centre of the beast&#8217;s body, just under the tentacle he was holding. The teeth started to clap dangerously close to his face, the five tentacle-like hands were trembling, a while later the cramps shook the whole black body, the beast clapped once more, then smiling mischievously it made its black mouth round and collapsed squeaking shrilly with its last breath something which sounded to Pete like: - Veenoom &#8211;

Pete at the last moment stopped himself from releasing the tentacle and from covering his ears. Instead of that he took out the knife with disgust, because he noticed pieces of the black, jelly-like skin had started to stick to the metal. He watched then how the monster was falling apart, it looked as though its body was overgrown with this black substance. Soon there remained only a black spot that was slowly absorbed by the seabed. Pete looked at the mermen. All four had extended their hands in his direction offering him their necklaces, but Pete refused to accept such reward and when they insisted he took the necklaces and put them back on each ones neck. It worked and the mermen bowed to him gratefully. The only thing that Pete hadn&#8217;t noticed was that a small piece of that black jelly-like substance which remained on his knife sneaked slowly from it and went deep into his skin. Pete didn&#8217;t feel anything.

The mermen hadn&#8217;t left Pete. They showed him around presenting all the secrets of the seabed, and soon they led him to their underwater abode. No they weren&#8217;t humans, well they were using simple tools, they made them by themselves, and that at the beginning caused Pete to think they were some kind of late humanoids or early homo sapiens, which for some unknown reason had adjusted to living under the water, but later on Pete was sure they didn&#8217;t develop into humans: they weren&#8217;t hideous at all, their language was poor and they stuck to a very simple life collecting no treasures except the necklaces &#8211; and they hadn&#8217;t tolerated humans, they had avoided any contacts with them. To his surprise Pete wasn&#8217;t human for them, he became their king. Nevertheless he remained alien to them and was rejected even when intending to help them he wanted to join them on the hunt for sea seals or to skin the seals in their underwater kingdom. This kingdom was a long stretching passage of partly underwater caves with each of the three entrances hidden deep in the sea. With time Pete got used to all the kingly honors given to him by the mermen (and by the mermaids as well), he grew lazy as never before and enjoyed being given what he asked for. His skin darkened significantly.

Despite such convenient position Pete&#8217;s thoughts were more and more often returning to his previous life. Deep in the sea everything was easy and simple. But he missed what he called the taste of life, that taste, one can feel, when after a great exhausting work one gets the reward. And he missed Milena, yes, he definitely missed her. He would even now accept her philosophical digressions. Mermaids were for him more like dogs: true, joyful and playful, but they couldn&#8217;t manage any serious discussion, they weren&#8217;t worried about their future, they had actually no future plans. So in the end Pete decided to leave this underwater community.

To his surprise none of the mermaids or mermen protested, they bowed to him when he was departing, but they didn&#8217;t try to stop him. Pete, although he hadn&#8217;t shown any sign of it, was deeply hurt by that.

-----

But returning to the human world was a total failure. When Pete got out of the water he noticed his skin took on a black shade and he found it difficult to accept it, he felt it wasn&#8217;t his skin, but a sort of a cover that stuck to his skin. And other people in Europe he met reacted the same as Pete: they were nice to him and surprised by his right accent and pronunciation, but already after a few moments Pete felt the distance growing around him. Even his old friend, who was now really old greeted him coldly. Pete felt that despair was slowly winning this round against reasonable thinking. This was why he started nervously and chaotically to search for Milena. That girl seemed to him to be his last chance.

Of course he succeeded in finding her, FB was perfect for such tasks. Milena was very active there, maybe not so much privately, but it was enough for Pete to learn about her life. She had returned to the school that her mother had founded and at the beginning she only aided the teachers there &#8211; by organizing educational trips for schoolchildren; then she invented her own method of exploring the world: the children received small tasks which every day activated different skills, but they were grouped within one week into one theme. Then the kids were given two additional days of the weekend to explore even more about that theme and on Monday all presented to their class what they had collected. Pete was watching Milena only from the level of that school. Now, when he had found her, something told him to keep his distance, and it was not because he was shy or blocked by any complexes. Pete felt, that each time he wanted to contact her, something distracted his mind and directed his thoughts towards a na&#239;ve oblivion and passivity. Finally he rarely popped in on that school&#8217;s website, thinking less and less about Milena. But at the same time he had realized that he was even more unwanted in the world of men than before in the world of the mermen. No, this is not the right description: unwanted is just said too little; he felt disregarded, he felt eliminated from that game which people called life, unfairly eliminated. People around him were in a hurry, had their own future plans, they wanted something and they were all the time changing what they could. And being so occupied they passed by him not noticing his presence at all.

Feeling so ignored he had chosen to stay underwater, mainly in big lakes, with various fish, so that he could always have something to eat. People, if he met them accidentally on the surface, irritated him, the screams of playing children angered him even more and he couldn&#8217;t stand them when they cried. In the end being so black on the surface of his skin he turned black inside too - in his heart and in his mind, so much that he even started to feel oddly angry and hungry for life. It was that sort of hungry anger which was difficult to satisfy with fish only. Every day he caught it, he hadn&#8217;t eaten it however, but usually bit into it wanting to get to its blood as quickly as possible, and he longed for more and more. If he had vocal cords of his mermen the water would carry his more and more angry roaring. He was so concentrated on himself that he even barely noticed that one day he caught someone&#8217;s leg instead of a fish and pulled it down. To that the little girl had a swimming suit with many colored shells attracting his gaze. Pete realized what he was doing when in the corner of his eye he noticed someone else diving to help the girl up. Pete released her, he then curled himself up taking on the appearance of a dark slippery stone. The girl has been pulled up and Pete run at the bottom for his life to the opposite shore, he knew it was over.

When the night begun he got out of the lake and decided to hitchhike home. At the e-café, not knowing even why, he checked Milena&#8217;s school page. Satisfied and happy&#8230; she had opened a kindergarten where disabled children were learning how to play with the normal ones, she intended to let them go altogether through the primary school and gymnasium. It was a small school and Milena&#8217;s children had&#8230; - at that moment Pete understood, that he was totally different, not disabled, but different - the children on those photos were joyfully illuminated, they were shining with happiness. That made him take his final decision to go back to the equatorial seas.

But he didn&#8217;t return to his mermen. He hid himself deep in the darkness of the sea-depths instead, hunting only for bigger species, and he didn&#8217;t care completely what his prey was. Time ceased to be important for him, he often fell into a kind of a lethargy or of a lazy slumbering being raised only by the already well known angry hunger.

One day however he was awoken by something else. Pete immediately felt his hair standing on end from fear, panicking within one millisecond his whole mind seemed to be paralyzed, so that Pete curled up himself, staring discreetly to the sides where any danger could come from. He suddenly thought of the caverns of his mermen. So slowly, keeping close to the seabed like a spotted eagle ray he swam in their direction. He was in a hurry, he really was, hunted by a huge fear for life. Somewhere deep in his mind sad thoughts appeared, that maybe there is no safe place, nowhere, neither under water nor on the surface. And this way, trembling in all his body he came in the end to his dogs. Their misery made him feel compassion with them. And they were also deadly scared. Pete felt strangely responsible for them, and the fear, by which Pete was clearly dominated until now reformed anew into anger against the ones who dared to threaten his underwater friends. Rushing so fast that he caused waves to rise on both sides Pete called all the mermen and mermaids to follow him out of the caverns. And he slowed only a little in his speed, so that they barely were catching up with him. Good that Pete remembered that they have to stick close to the surface to let them take their breath. And they were hurrying up towards the evil, that they all sensed by their own unknown wit. They all meant to attack it, to vanquish it with all their strength.

At the moment the mermen were emerging to catch their breath on the surface Pete noticed something flying above the sea. It looked like a burning comet, but instead of falling down into the water it suddenly rose up higher into the air. Pete roared angrily towards this comet, but it was all he managed to do as he was pulled very quickly underwater. So it was not Pete who had been struck by the shot from that burning comet but the mermen. They disappeared together with the water that surrounded them, well actually they all were relocated to another part of the universe. Except Pete.

-----

All had noticed it, no, not noticed but felt it, so soon the disturbed murmuring was heard on all the five platforms. 223D6 arrived there too and was checking how big that new threat could be. Relieved he was informed, that they were safe, they, the winged ones yes, but not those in the water: they formed a circle enclosing the children inside it and making themselves ready to defend their tribe, and around them, seen clearly from above, plenty of hungry snakes were gathering. 223D6 looked down on that scene with a sorrowful heart. From where have they come, the ones in the water? Maybe it was another surprise made by the Blackeyed?

The K-mother XXVII kneeled down next to him, her sweet scent, so similar to tree-flowers in the spring time, was influencing him more than her beautiful skin. 223D6 smiled to his wife.

- They won&#8217;t do without our help &#8211; she commented singing.

- Sisi &#8211; he reposted her gently &#8211; By calling for a hunt you will announce election of a new K-mother and of a new Chosen -

She kissed him also gently before answering: - My true husband, even the hunt won&#8217;t be enough to save them. They'll need all of us &#8211; she smiled at that and before 223D6 could react she immediately started calling all the omrals in a high, desperate voice.

223D6 looked at her in full admiration, she wasn&#8217;t so young anymore, but he still remembered her so young, just like when she had chosen him for her husband. And for a long time she had stubbornly prolonged their ruling time. 223D6 thought at the beginning that she acted this way because she felt the same way as him, that they both were only a kind of replacement, and that the true ones, who should be the K-mother and the Chosen, were Bibi and 222D6, his father. And 223D6 was proud of her. But recently he started to doubt her, he wondered if maybe she was enjoying her position of being the K-mother so much, that she didn&#8217;t intend to hand it over to a new one, and that something that looked like a penalty for the queens for sentencing the previous K-mother to death, was actually only the cover for her ruling passion. Luckily he saw now that his lovely Sisi and all the untamed energy, with which she had been ruling all that time, could easily be given up for a reasonable purpose. So 223D6 caught her by her hand and a while later they both rushed from the high platform dropping straight down towards the snakes, who were just emerging out of the sea&#8230; All omrals followed them singing their hunting song.

-----

Pete had almost reached the bottom of the sea. He felt the incredible speed with which he had been pulled down by something grey, and with all his strength he was struggling against that new aggressor trying hopelessly to make himself free: the grey one in the meantime started to melt into his black skin and Pete immediately felt the piercing pain, he was out of breath, he felt his skin had stopped filtrating oxygen from the water. At that moment he noticed a protruding piece of his now grey skin so he caught it and quickly ripped it off. He immediately felt dizzy from pain, but a while later relieved sensing the flow of oxygen through the naked part of the skin, so he caught another piece of skin, which also stood out and ripped it like before. It worked so he quickly attached the next piece of the grey layer of his skin to the mast of an old sunken ship and started to circle around the ship making circles also with his body peeling off automatically his grey skin. He concentrated only on that circling and did it faster and faster putting all his energy, all his pain and anger into it. And he was roaring, actually he was gobbling producing painfully low sound waves which caused hurricane waves on the sea surface. His end was near, he was sure about it, but to the same extent, he was sure, that it was the only right thing he could do now. Pete felt free as never before doing this and with his last thought about the freedom the speed he created formed out of the water a funnel, and Pete was pulled right into the middle of it.

When he opened his eyes, he saw heads of his mermen bowing over him, and some other heads, which belonged to a kind with huge shiny wings &#8211; Angels &#8211; Pete thought &#8211; I am in heaven&#8230; -

Warning! The following tale is rated M for content and suggestive themes, so please be aware that it contains sexual themes, mild implied "T-cest", and some slightly perverse humor.... Also, this takes place in it's own unspecified universe, unrelated to any of my other TMNT tales, where female mutants like Alopex, Ninjara, Mona Lisa, and Venus do not exist, nor do Karai, Lotus, or Kala. In other words, in this world, there are no female romantic prospects, so the boys are, shall we say, left to their own devices for such emotional or physical outlets....

*********************************************************

Power Play

Leo grunted as he shifted his weight on his knees, pushing upward against the bulk of his partner. Raphael wasn’t letting up anytime soon, though, and he knew it. He strained with every muscle, pinned beneath the other’s powerful frame. He felt Raph shift above him, seeking a better position. The red-banded turtle gripped him firmly around the middle, his plastron scraping against Leo’s carapace. He could feel Raph’s legs rubbing against his own, and the thick cords of muscle in his brother’s thighs flexed again as he pushed down once more. He trembled slightly at the sensation, surprised at how good that contact felt. Leo let out a soft growl, anxious now.

Raph heard, and chuckled. He knew all too well that Leo wouldn’t submit fully to his partner unless he was completely dominated, and that wouldn’t happen without some resistance. These sessions could easily last an hour or more. Not that he minded- it was fun to take the ever-so-perfect leader down a peg or two. He loved the feeling of having his leader down on the floor underneath him, showing who was REALLY the “boss” when it came to pure physical prowess. Leo reached up and back to grasp at his brother’s neck, pulling his head down, but that only egged him on to push harder. They were both panting hard now, wearing each other out, and only time would tell which would tire first. The bamboo mat on the floor beneath them had begun to dig into Leo’s knees, but he ignored the discomfort. He would NOT let Raph outlast him, damn it!

Shells pressed tightly together, they continued the game, locked in a position that was far more intimate than was proper for siblings. It hardly mattered. Neither wanted to be the first to let go. Leo tried vainly to roll over and reverse their positions, but Raph wasn’t having it. He held him down firmly, not about to let the older turtle get the upper hand in this. His pride wouldn’t allow that, no matter how often he backed down when commands were given.

“Not- hngh- lettin’ ya’ up ’til ya’ submit!” Raph growled out huskily, as his plastron scraped against Leo’s carapace again. Leo was startled by how stimulating the sound of their shells rubbing was. And Raph’s voice…. Was it always so enticing? He shook his head, clearing away the taboo thoughts. They were, after all, clutch-mates. He shouldn’t even be having such thoughts! And yet- what else was there for him? For ANY of them, for that matter? There certainly weren’t any female mutant turtles to pair off with.

“Not going to happen, bro!” He huffed back, but he was tiring. He couldn’t hold off for much longer, and they both knew it. His stamina simply wasn’t as great as his hotheaded brother’s. Maybe if he lifted weights as much as Raph did, or spent as much time on the punching bag, he’d be as strong. But he was more concerned with perfecting his kattas, with working on his speed with his katanas, or agility training.

They balanced each other in that respect, he realized, one powerful and enduring, the other precise and efficient. They were well-matched, in some ways. It was what made them such a good team in battle. Not that his other brothers weren’t good fighters, too, but the friction between himself and Raph often caused him to forget just how well they worked together when they were in accord. If things were different…. He couldn’t ask for a better match in a mate.

At last, his arms gave out, and Leo found himself pinned beneath the bulk of Raphael’s body. Oddly, he didn’t mind at all. Those rock-hard arms wrapped around him were the same ones that he relied on to guard his back when they fought the Foot or the Purple Dragons or the Mob. The stirring that had been building inside grew stronger, so much so that he almost couldn’t hold it back. He needed to get away- and quickly. Didn’t need his thoughts to be revealed accidentally. So he thumped his hand against the mat.

“I yield!” He gasped out, “You win, now let me up!”

Raphael sniggered, but he released his hold on the older mutant. “Ya’ damn right, I win, Fearless.” He stood up, holding out a hand to help his leader up. “Ya’ wanna’ go again?” He asked, smirking. He knew Leo was spent.

“No thanks. I know better than to go two rounds in a row with you. Maybe next time I’ll be the one on top!” He chuckled, before suddenly realizing how that had sounded to his own ears. Damn, but he needed to get his head back in gear. These odd feelings were getting more frequent, and he couldn’t understand why he only felt that way around Raph. Why not Mikey or Don? They were both more willing to do as he asked, though that might be taking his position a bit TOO far. He wondered if they ever had such thoughts, but it was a subject he didn’t dare broach with them, much less with Raph.

“Suit yourself, bro,” Raph shrugged, grabbing a pair of dumbbells to start doing curls. Leo watched for a moment, unable to believe that the red-clad turtle could still have enough energy left to continue working out after that bout. He found his gaze locked on those biceps bulging, the veins visible as Raph brought the weights up. He studied the way the hothead’s shoulders and neck strained, and only realized he’d been staring when Raphael suddenly stopped.

“What?” The red-banded mutant asked, staring back at him curiously. “Somethin’ wrong?”

Leo shook his head, and shrugged. “What? Oh, no. Just never noticed how thick your arms are before. Did you add more weight to those things?” He said quickly, trying to cover his real reason for staring.

“Yeah, I found another pair of five-pound bars. Figured it can’t hurt to push myself a bit more. You wanna’ try?” He paused and held them out, but Leo just waved them off.

“No thanks. I’m going to go take a shower. I know we can’t sweat, but I still always feel hot and dirty after a workout.” He turned and headed out of the dojo, hoping Raph hadn’t noticed the way his tail was curling forward, bulging suspiciously.

He beat a strategic retreat to the bathroom, and let out a long breath as he shut the door behind him. He turned on the water in the makeshift double-shower that had been installed several years earlier, and adjusted the temperature until it was warm without being too hot. Only after he had stepped into the stream did he begin to relax. The water running down over his body felt good. In fact, it made the swelling in his tail harder to ignore. So he decided to stop trying, and let loose. In minutes, he was leaning with one arm propping himself against the wall, busily relieving the tension that had plagued him since his match with Raph.

He was so intent on the task at hand, that he never even noticed when the second shower turned on. What finally drew his attention was the odd echo of his churs coming from behind him. Leo turned around, only to find that Raph had joined him in the shower- in more ways than one. He glanced down, and gaped when he realized they were both engaged in the same activity. Raph caught the pause in the sound, and turned to look over his shoulder. He looked down, and grinned.

“Heh, you too, huh?” He chuckled, causing Leo to turn a darker shade of green in embarrassment.

“Just shut up, and let’s never mention this again.” Leo grumbled. He turned back around, ignoring further sounds from behind, and finished off quickly, before jumping out of the shower and racing off to the privacy of his own room to bury his head in his pillow, utterly mortified.

"Well, this is another fine myth you've gotten us into..."
-from "Myth Directions"

Well, I'm glad at least one person enjoyed it, LOL! Yeah, that's one of the things that always struck me as kind of depressing, especially in the comics- they always seem to end up alone, even outliving their friends. (In the Mirage comics, they lived to well past 100, and for some reason all ended up going separate ways at some point in their 30's. And Mikey went off into space in vol. 4, and was never seen again....)

"Well, this is another fine myth you've gotten us into..."
-from "Myth Directions"

Oh what the hey, I'll add in something since its been awhile since I did it! Here's a Boy Meets World one shot I did recently that is set during the season 2 episode Danger Boy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but what you see here.

As Cory looked towards the blonde girl who wanted to see something funny, he couldn't help but feel betrayed by the fact his brother's hormones had obviously got the best of him once again and let that over ride their bond as brothers. And if he was being honest here, the only thing funny about this entire situation was the outfit Shawn's date had on. Looking her in the eye, he began to speak. "Yeah… I'm no one's entertainment." And he'd sooner let himself get punched in the face by Harley Keiner then be treated like some piece of garbage who was only good for entertaining someone.

"Excuse me?" The girl asked somewhat offended that this little curly haired boy would dare to talk to her like that.

"You heard me, I'm no one's entertainment and I'm starting to feel real happy now that my supposed brother over here didn't ask me to do this double date."

"Cory!" Reprimanded Eric, who was not happy at the way things were going here.

"No Eric, I refuse to be treated like a little kid by someone who's own dress sense doesn't look all that impressive either."

"Hey, I think you need to show some respect here." Eric's girlfriend of the week cut in with a glare at him.

"If I wanted to look for attention, I would do something that would get me that. What I did with the water wasn't me looking for attention. That was just me having some fun. Something you obviously don't recognize."

Suffice it to say, Cory's temper was starting to get the best of him. The situation with Wendy Jansen was still bothering him and now he's got his own brother pulling this crap on him. He was pretty sure he'd never pull something like this on his brother. He couldn't even fault Shawn as his best friend had no idea since he'd obviously been lied too. The girlfriend of the week glared at him again, not that he was even phased by that since he'd been getting glares from the best of them like his own parents, Mr. Feeny, Mr. Turner, Harley and his goons. "I think you need to take yourself home and have a little time out or something little boy." She told him angrily.

Looking towards his brother for some kind of support who was looking rather lost. Cory could also see Shawn doing the smart thing by staying well out of the mess currently going on. "The fact you aren't saying anything hurts more than anything else Eric." Cory told him sadly and began to walk off.

"Wait… Cory!" Tried Eric but his little brother kept on going without even a look back as he went up the stairs. Making Eric feel like a ton of crap.

A long blonde haired girl was then seen running up the stairs afterwards as well. The girlfriend of the week simply shrugged her shoulders. "Well, now that that's over with we can get back to what we were doing before." The shocked look on Eric's face didn't bode well as he couldn't really believe what he'd just heard.

"Yeah, I totally agree. Who needs a baby like that anyway?" The blonde cousin added in and Shawn didn't like that one bit.

And it showed when he walked up those same steps. "Hey! Where are you going!?"

Looking down at her, Eric, and the black haired girl he told them he'd rather be anywhere else then here and then hauled butt. A clapping could be heard, making the three look to where it was coming from to see one Harley Keiner in his custom leather jacket, blue jeans, black boots, and white t-shirt with his hair slicked back like always. The sight of him, his two goons, and the little sister made Eric groan. "Oh no, you guys. My night's complete."

Harley walked up to him with a small smirk on his face though there was no feeling of amusement coming from it. "Terrific job Matthews, way to show that brotherly bond with Baboon there." Keiner told him sarcastically with another clap.

"Not even Harley would do that to me pal." Theresa added in with her arms crossed with a look that said she wasn't impressed at all. And while she wasn't dating Cory anymore, she still found him to be a great friend and this was not something he needed on his plate what with that Jansen mess and all. But the fact the girl in question went after Cory told her that all may not be lost after all.

Frankie could be seen cracking his knuckles and Eric had to back up a little at the sight. "Why, why do you guys even care? Aside from T.K., you three are pretty much always picking on him."

Harley had to nod at that as he clasped his hands together. "True, but even we have a certain limit to how low we will go. And what you did there Matthews made you the real Baboon. If I were to ever do such a thing to my dear sweet angelic sister I would have to allow Frankie to hurt me most painfully so." The big guy would probably cry his eyes out after but he'd do regardless.

Eric could only look down in shame as the two girls looked on and neither were terribly happy with how their night had been ruined. Satisfied with the end result, Harley gave a nod towards his group to get moving. "We will be taking our leave now, I wish you a most pleasant of nights." Not that it was likely to happen after this but hey, a little politeness never hurt right?

"Yeah, heh! Its probably gonna be very unpleasant for ya now Matthews!" Added Joey with a laugh as he and the others walked off. T.K. planned to call her favorite polite guy later to see how he was doing and maybe even get him a nice gift to help raise his spirits.

For Eric, this was going to be a situation he was going to have to never repeat again cause no girl was worth hurting his brother over.

Seth snapped upright in his bed, his mind suddenly perfectly clear and enlightened by purpose.
His dreams the night previous had been the same as they had for three months now. The content of the dreams varied; sometimes they be of raging fires, sometimes violent blizzards, sometimes simply an empty void; what remained constant was the sensation of dread, of a shadow over him and a voice that whispered in the back of his mind.
Every other night he awoke with a cold sweat and a panic in his heart. Not this night.
This night he awakened renewed, as though he had been reborn. More than that he suddenly had a direction he'd never known before in his life.

As he swung his legs from the bed he knew why this dream had been different to the others, it was the girl.
The girl whose hair was as dark as the void, with eyes filled with fire and the power of a blizzard inside her. He dreamt of the girl so vividly he was almost certain he could have touched her, plunged a blade into her heart.
He was filled with a desire and purpose that now flooded every inch of his body. The girl, the girl of hair hard black and skin soft brown, she had to bleed.

He whistled a tune, one he couldn't name but felt as though he had heard a million times before, as he moved across his room to his tall wardrobe.
He paused a moment as his eyes fell upon the reflection in the mirror upon the door, his gaze upon that chubby boy of pale skin and dirty blonde hair.
He threw open the doors and perused the contents, shirts and pants that hung from coat-hangers. A stink of mildew wafted out at him.
He tutted to himself. "Well now, this certainly won't do."

He closed the doors and moved out into the hallway. He could hear the growing whistle of the kettle boiling, his father would be in the kitchen as he awaited his first of the twenty coffees he would ingest that day.
He turned in the opposite direction and headed into the master bedroom, and interesting name he thought to himself as he moved to his father's wardrobe.
Seth had known his mother a total of three years before she ran off with someone she had met in the local pub. His father's reluctance to give a gender suggested to Seth that it was a woman.

He slid his fingers across his father's clothes, then came to a stop upon a dark two-button suit.
He sighed. "I suppose it shall have to do."
He pulled it free and lay it upon the bed as he slid out of his pajamas.
"I'll need to find something better," he muttered as he glanced the suit over. "I can't be seen killing in that."

Seth stepped from his father's room dressed in the suit, thankful at least that his father was more-or-less his size, as he tried to remember how to do a Windsor knot with the black tie.
He moved into the dining room and glanced across both the table and cabinet before he moved into the kitchen. "I require your car keys."
"You ain't taking my car," snarled his father, a hairy man with a predisposition towards mullets and a lack of shirts, as he searched through the pantry cupboard. "The fuck you want it for anyway? You ain't got nothin' to do but sit on that pathetic arse o' yours anyway."
Seth played with the left cuff of the jacket. "If you must know I have a quota of murder to meet, so, please, car keys."

"The fuck are..." his father started as he turned. "You wearin' my fuckin' suit? Fuck you playin' at?"
Seth cocked an eyebrow at him. "Play? You wound me father. Spilling blood isn't a game, although it is incredibly good fun. So, last time, keys."
"Fucking faggot freak," his father shook his head as he began to turn.
"Oh well," Seth muttered as he reached out and grasped the handle of the kettle that sat upon the stove.

"Was it really that hard?" Seth questioned as he took the car keys from the second drawer of the cabinet in the dining room. "You always make everything so difficult, and serious. Lighten up."
Seth steps back and looks through into the kitchen. His father lays upon the floor in a pool of blood, his face caved in and a bloodied kettle lays on the floor beside him.
"See, that's what stress does to you. You need to just take a breath and have a break every now and then."
Seth licked his lips.
"Damn, now I want a Kit-Kat. Okay, I'm going to take your car and go get a Kit-Kat before I go slit a girl's throat. You just lay there and let your brains leak out onto the tiles." He points at his father. "That's the spirit!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seth exhaled as his eyes fell upon the red-and-blue lights in his rear-vision mirror.
"Every time you're in a hurry," he mutters and pulls over to the side of the road.
The highway patrol car pulls over behind him. He spotted two officers, one behind the wheel while the other climbed out of the passenger side.

Seth tapped upon the steering wheel to the beat of the song as the officer approached.
The officer gave a light tap upon his window and Seth rolled it down. "What can I do you for, officer?"
"Do you have any idea how fast you were going back there?" the officer asked.
Seth shrugged. "Honestly wasn't paying attention. I'd say pretty fast."
"One-fifty, in a one-ten zone," the cop replied.

Seth whistled. "I would have thought it was faster."
The cop licked his lip. "I'm going to need to see your license."
"Certainly," Seth smiled widely as he reached for the glove compartment.

He reached inside and his hand fell upon the kitchen knife inside. He had wanted to save it for the girl, but he supposed it really didn't matter how much blood was on it.
"May I ask where you're going in such a hurry?"
"Of course," Seth replied as his hand gripped the handle. "I was going to meet a girl, and slit her throat."

The officer's eyes widened as he took a sudden step backwards.
Seth moved in a flash as he pulled the knife from the glove compartment and turned to plunge it into the officer's throat. His smiled as blood gurgled forth across the blade.

Seth took in a deep breath as he stood before the highway patrol car, now engulfed in flames. The air was rich with the smell of burnt flesh.
His eyes moved to a station wagon that passed on the highway and he waved to the nine year-old girl in the back seat as she stared at him.
He looked down at the pistol in his hand and moved back towards his car. The girl wouldn't kill herself after-all, well not if he was lucky.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hawkesbury River

Seth pulled into a parking space outside a small convenience store and sat there for a few minutes, his eyes locked forward.
He felt it all as he neared the town, the shadow that lay upon it and the sparks of light that tried desperately to fight through it. In truth that was near every town, but here it was different. The shadow was darker and the lights were brighter, and yet neither could win.
More than that he felt something in the shadow even darker still. She was here. She shouldn't be, yet she was. That meant she had machinations here, and he didn't like it.

Finally he climbed from the car and looked up and down the mostly empty street.
The worst part was he failed to feel the girl amidst everything else. He expected her to be a beacon, yet she wasn't.
This would be more work than he'd hoped. He was now happy he'd already killed three people that day.

He moved into the store and found himself the only customer, outside an elderly woman that searched through the milk.
Behind the counter stood a plump, middle-aged woman with wild brown hair, and on a chair behind her a thin teenage boy with matching hair sat as he read through a sports magazine.
"Hello," he smiled broadly as he approached the counter. "I'm looking for someone. A girl."

The woman stared at him. "You need to a be a bit more specific."
"Teenager, dark hair," as he recalled the images of the girl from the dream. "Light brown skin. I believe she's pregnant."
"You mean the Virgin Whore?" the boy asked as he looked over the top of his magazine.
The woman shot him a sharp glare. "Don't call her that."

"She is a whore," the old woman piped up from the milk fridge. "Gets herself knocked up and can't even say who the father is. Thinks people buy that 'virgin' crap."
"Virgin?" Seth asks with a cocked eyebrow.
"Some folks say she got knocked up but still a virgin," the boy replied. "I don't know about that, I do know nobody I know did it. Not that they didn't wanna get in her pants."
"You keep up that talk and you'll be scrubbing the toilet!" the woman behind the counter barked, then smiled at Seth. "If she's the girl you want, that's Eliza Parks." Seth mouthed the name 'Eliza'. "Lives with her aunt on the other side of town, closer to the water. Dunno the address, but somebody over there could probably help you."

"Thank you," Seth smiled. He eyed a Kit-kat, only to remember he'd left the gun in the car. "I'll be off then."
He headed out the door and climbed back into the car, his eyes moved to the pistol on the passenger seat. He debated going back in, but decided it best he find the girl now.
He could always go back after he killed her.

It took his less than five minutes to drive to what counted as 'the other side of town', it wasn't exactly a large town.
He pulled up outside one of the houses and wondered how best to proceed. He could go door-to-door until he found her, but that would take a while and if one screamed the girl might escape before he found her.
He sighed. It seemed he would be better to just ask for directions and not kill until he knew where she was.

He walked up to the front door of the house he'd parked out front and knocked on the door, the pistol stuffed into the waist of his pants with his shirt pulled over to hide it.
A few moments later a stern gentleman opened the door and looked Seth over with a huff. "I ain't lookin' to change religion, or buy anything."
"Just looking for someone," Seth smiled. "An Eliza Parks. Heard she lives around her."

"You the daddy?" the man asked. "'Bout time you turned up, that'll shut all those idiots up. You're in luck, that's her there."
Seth spun and his eyes locked upon her. Eliza Parks; the girl with hair like the void, eyes filled with power, and the power of a blizzard.
He walked away from the man and headed straight for her as she moved down the street, her eyes locked to her feet.

"Eliza Parks?" he asked as he moved his hand towards the pistol.
"Yeah?" she asked as she turned to him, her green eyes locked with his. A dull rage filled her face. "You come to gawk at the stupid slut?"
He swallowed deep and slowly shook his head as his hand dropped. "You're not. You're an angel."

She stared at him uncertainly. "Okay, I'm just going to..." Then she turned and walked away from him.
She was beautiful, a perfect creature. He was supposed to splatter her blood across the ground, and he was meant to enjoy it. But now he wasn't sure he could do it.
Now he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.